I think I used “silver bullet” to use the same thing you mean by “$20 bill”, so we’re in broad agreement. I also don’t personally know anyone who thought this was definitely a slam dunk; everyone I’ve talked to has had the attitude “sounds crazy, generally good to try things”.
I agree with you that the weight loss may be too rapid to be healthy, and that the data is basically worthless without knowing what the rebound rate is. I also dislike the emphasis on weight loss over 24 hours, when it’s impossible to have one-day weight loss that is both noticeable above the noise in the measurement and healthy.
I disagree that it being prohibitively restrictive for many people is a reason not to investigate. The restrictiveness and social costs aren’t secret harms people won’t notice until it’s too late; people will naturally notice those costs and change their behavior if it’s not worth it. SMTM claims the diet tolerates a lot of deviance, so the costs may be quite low. Maybe that slows the weight loss, but people can make their own choices on that. It seems much more forgiving than keto, where one carb too many breaks the diet for days, and despite a very high attrition rate there’s a substantial number of people sticking to keto long term. The high attrition rate is irrelevant to knowing if the diet works when you stick to it.
I would feel differently if they were charging a large up front fee and blaming people for not sticking to it, but that is not at all happening. They’re suggesting people eat a very cheap food and stop if they don’t like it. This might change if potato fat camp happens, at which point I do hope they highlight the drop out rate, but I really don’t see “you might quit” as a reason not to try.
I also disagree that we should wait for drugs. Those are definitely worth investigating, but the history of weight loss drugs and especially drugs in trials is really bad, not to mention none of them are as widely available as potatoes.
I still think the potential silent risks are a reason to be concerned. I doubt their reports that potatoes have enough protein, especially for highly active people, and expect micronutrient shortages as well. I hope a more formal study checks those. I didn’t try the diet because there was absolutely no chance “100% potatoes” would be healthy for me, and I advised the friend who asked to wait on the data. I put an extremely large probability on “this is just another fad monodiet and it’s bad in the ways they are all bad”. But trying it out, especially in the extremely flexible way they are, still seems good to me.
I think I used “silver bullet” to use the same thing you mean by “$20 bill”, so we’re in broad agreement. I also don’t personally know anyone who thought this was definitely a slam dunk; everyone I’ve talked to has had the attitude “sounds crazy, generally good to try things”.
I agree with you that the weight loss may be too rapid to be healthy, and that the data is basically worthless without knowing what the rebound rate is. I also dislike the emphasis on weight loss over 24 hours, when it’s impossible to have one-day weight loss that is both noticeable above the noise in the measurement and healthy.
I disagree that it being prohibitively restrictive for many people is a reason not to investigate. The restrictiveness and social costs aren’t secret harms people won’t notice until it’s too late; people will naturally notice those costs and change their behavior if it’s not worth it. SMTM claims the diet tolerates a lot of deviance, so the costs may be quite low. Maybe that slows the weight loss, but people can make their own choices on that. It seems much more forgiving than keto, where one carb too many breaks the diet for days, and despite a very high attrition rate there’s a substantial number of people sticking to keto long term. The high attrition rate is irrelevant to knowing if the diet works when you stick to it.
I would feel differently if they were charging a large up front fee and blaming people for not sticking to it, but that is not at all happening. They’re suggesting people eat a very cheap food and stop if they don’t like it. This might change if potato fat camp happens, at which point I do hope they highlight the drop out rate, but I really don’t see “you might quit” as a reason not to try.
I also disagree that we should wait for drugs. Those are definitely worth investigating, but the history of weight loss drugs and especially drugs in trials is really bad, not to mention none of them are as widely available as potatoes.
I still think the potential silent risks are a reason to be concerned. I doubt their reports that potatoes have enough protein, especially for highly active people, and expect micronutrient shortages as well. I hope a more formal study checks those. I didn’t try the diet because there was absolutely no chance “100% potatoes” would be healthy for me, and I advised the friend who asked to wait on the data. I put an extremely large probability on “this is just another fad monodiet and it’s bad in the ways they are all bad”. But trying it out, especially in the extremely flexible way they are, still seems good to me.
Oh my, I completely misunderstood your previous comment. I apologize.